Pacts of democratic truth-telling: Between ascendancy and equality

The relation between democracy and truth is deeply contested. While some political thinkers argue that truth is essential to democratic flourishing, others warn that it threatens the conflictual logic of democracy. I develop a sociological perspective on this question by constructing an analytical framework for studying democratic truth-telling as a practice. Drawing on Foucault, I argue that democratic truth-telling is marked by a tension between the truth-teller's ascendancy and the commitment to equality among citizens. This tension is managed through pacts between the truth-teller and their audience, which adjust relations of ascendancy to relations of equality. I theorise three pacts in the case of activist truth-tellers and show how they lead to distinct dynamics in the public. Instead of delineating the proper relation between democracy and truth, the role of sociology may be to cultivate an openness to the multiple ways in which truth-telling figures in democracies.